"Webbiquity" is about being everywhere online when and where buyers are looking for what you sell. It's what I help B2B clients achieve through a coordinated strategy of SEO, search marketing, social media, brand management, content marketing, and influencer relations, supported by the right marketing technology.

Archives for August 2011

What’s the best web content management system (CMS) for your small business? Should you look at something beyond a CMS—a web marketing system (WMS), that provides additional functions like customer relationship management (CRM) and email? There’s no shortage of options, and the decision is an important one: you’ll be “married” to the platform you choose for as long as your current site is up.

Content management systems are valuable tools for small businesses that 1) don’t want to make a big investment in IT infrastructure, 2) don’t have web development (HTML, CSS etc.) expertise on staff, and 3) want to be able to maintain their own web content (adding new pages, text and images) over time, without needing to learn web coding skills.

“Free” CMS options such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal have an obvious appeal (price) to small businesses, but none are cost-free. All require some level of technical expertise, and Joomla and Drupal particularly have steep learning curves. Low-cost, fee-based tools are generally more user-friendly, provide more features, and most importantly come bundled with support. For businesses looking beyond “free” tools, here are six CMS and WMS options that can help you get more sales and marketing productivity out of your website, while being easy on your web content contributors.

Keep in mind that all of these tools impose some design limitations; if you need a truly custom look and feel like these sites, your only option is to hire a professional web design and development firm. But if you can live within a template (and most of these tools do offer a respectable array of options), you can save thousands of dollars on design and coding costs.

CMS Only

These platforms offer website building and content management tools with hosting, but no “extras.” If you are just looking to get a site up on the web and already have systems in place for CRM and marketing automation, these tools are worthy of consideration.

Squarespace is a generally well-regarded tool with reasonable design functionality for building natively search-optimized websites and blogs. It offers a solid set of features including site search, multiple permission levels for different types of contributors, a form-builder, and built-in analytics. The learning curve is far less daunting than most free CMS alternatives, and a strength of the tool is its mobile support. For anyone looking for an inexpensive, easy-to-use, basic website building and management tool, Squarespace is definitely worth consideration.

UPDATE: After closer examination, SquareSpace is not worthy of consideration, due to weaknesses in search engine optimization, specifically:

• Meta title tags inside a section (e.g., “blog”) will always begin with the section name. You can customize the section name, but you can’t override the fact the all-important first few characters of every page title in that section will contain it.

• You can’t create custom meta description tags (!) which are essential in “selling the click.”

Like the other tools listed here, LightCMS is low-cost, easy to use, search-optimized and provides tools like a forms builder. What sets it apart is better design flexibility than most of the alternatives, calendar tools and built-in ecommerce functionality. For developers and agencies, LightCMS also offers one of the most attractive partner programs. Considering all of its features, LightCMS is another shortlist-worthy tool for basic website creation, particularly for smaller B2C companies who want an easy-to-manage online store.

Another website building option that includes extras like ecommerce functionality with credit card processing, and nightly backups. The site is a bit cheesy, but the functionality of the tool is solid. Solution Toolbox provides their own comparison of their system to Squarespace and LightCMS, but take it with a grain of salt; it’s biased in their favor of course and some of the specifics are out of date (for example, Squarespace now includes a forms-builder). Still, for smaller consumer marketers who want to run an online store in addition to their basic website, this is worth a look.

Web Marketing Platforms

These suites combine CMS functionality with additional web marketing applications to provide more than just a website, but a complete online marketing software system.

Business Catalyst combines the features of the products above—a CMS, forms builder, and ecommerce tools—with email marketing functionality and a basic CRM system. It provides respectable design flexibility and support for mobile devices. Though the product had issues in its original incarnation, Adobe has fixed many of these issues since acquiring it in late 2009 and continues to invest in product development. The catch? Business Catalyst isn’t sold directly to users, only through web developers and agencies (though there are ways around this).

Genoo is a solid, easy to use tool, very strong on email marketing / marketing automation. It offers some of the best built-in SEO tools of any of these packages. Genoo doesn’t provide native CRM functionality, but does have a pre-built integration to Salesforce.com. This is ideal for midsized companies with at least moderately sophisticated internal marketing resources who are already using a separate CRM system and are ready to graduate from hosted email marketing services. Genoo’s offering includes training on how to use its lead-nurturing capabilities.

This is a complete web marketing package for smaller, non-ecommerce businesses. It provides a robust CMS for a website and blog along with native CRM, email marketing, and forms-building tools, as well as comprehensive strategy guidance for making all of the pieces work together. The ePROneur package uniquely combines hosting, software, services and strategy to help companies with limited resources effectively generate leads and revenue online. The web marketing resources section of the company’s website also offers a wealth of free strategic and tactical web marketing information.

Any of the alternatives above can help small to midsize companies cost-effectively build and manage their web presence with no IT infrastructure and limited technical expertise. The key from there is to choose a platform whose strengths match up with your business type and needs. And also to investigate multiple options to determine which tool, and company, you are most comfortable working with.

FTC Disclosure: Webbiquity has no affiliate relationships with any of the vendors in this review.

Several great new features were recently added to the B2B Marketing Zone and Social Media Informer by co-founder Tony Karrer. One of the most obvious is that posts now include images, making the sites more visually appealing than the former text-only design.

Best is decided by the system based on social signals – that’s clicks, views, twitter, delicious, and other kinds of inputs that tell us what people are doing with the content. And the goal of both sites is to make sure that great content from lesser known sources still makes it to the top.

Each day, week, month and year, each site generates a “Best Of” Edition. You can change the Edition at any time. That allows you to see some really great stuff beyond what you typically see on the home page. For example, included in the July 25th edition on Social Media Informer are these posts (among others):

The intent of the sites is to aggregate and make it easy to find great content. You’ll see only see a snippet of each post. When you click the link, you will be directed back to the source. In other words, we curate the content, but don’t own it. You can still comment and interact with the content on the original site.

Visiting these sites is a great way to find fresh content, but you can also subscribe to newsletter digests on both sites.

This is a quick overview of the new features on these sites. Tony and I look forward to continuing to improve them. If you have thoughts, or comments, please feel free to contact Tony Karrer via email at: akarrer@techempower.com.

Tom is right. As he contended in Web Presence Optimization Reloaded, you should be “everywhere.” You have to appear in all the channels where your customers may be lurking.

But—and this is big—if you appear in those channels with a message that does not resonate with your potential buyers, it’s worse than not being there at all. You will be convincing potential buyers that you really don’t understand their issues, don’t know what they really care about, and aren’t really going to be able to solve their problems. You will be “unselling,” rather than selling.

Details about the revenue-growth method (including the questions you should be asking customers), are in Kristin's new book, Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy.

How do you make sure your content—wherever it appears—is relevant and convincing?

You ask your current customers a tested set of questions that will result in you knowing exactly what you should be saying to your future customers. Using this method, you will actually be able to reverse-engineer your successful sales so you can produce new sales in quantity. Fortunately, you only have to interview 7 – 10 customers of any given type to see ironclad, bankable patterns emerge. These patterns will direct your company’s efforts going forward, and will result in higher revenue.

You should ask your questions on the phone, in a conversation. Your customers will be more relaxed and tell you more on the phone than they will in person. They will also give you more usable information than you’d ever get out of an emailed or webform survey. People tend to “clam up” when they’re typing something that could be used against them in some way. And “listening” to social media won’t tell you what their buying process was, or what they were thinking as they made the purchase. Even social media companies hire me to have these conversations with their customers.

The interviewing is just the first step to increasing your revenue. Equally important is what you learn, and what you do with the information after you have analyzed it and discussed it.

You will learn:

Why they came looking for your solution—the problem they were trying to solve, and how they describe it. These words and phrases will become the magic words that resonate with customers. They won’t have to translate your internal jargon into the words and phrases they would naturally use.

What their concerns were as they were trying to buy. I say “trying,” because only a few companies in the world actually make it easy for their customers to buy from them. Most companies place one barrier after another in front of buyers when they’re attempting to buy.

What they like about your company, products, and services (which you should be promoting), and what simply isn’t working (which you should fix).

What they wish you were selling. It could be a small tweak to your existing product line, a new service associated with your product line, a new way of packaging or supporting the product, or even a new product that would provide a new revenue stream.

Armed with what you’ve learned, you will then map out their buying process. You will create marketing and selling tools that make it easy for them to take the next step in their buying process, encouraged by what they see as they go.

Using this approach, all of your online and offline content—and the tools produced for salespeople—will resonate with customers. Your product developers will know exactly what they should be focusing on. Top executives will know what should be offered, how the business should be structured, and even what people are willing to pay for those products and services. You will know the promises that they want you to keep, and you will make the necessary changes to your company so you can keep those promises. You will create a revenue-growth action plan that lays out the steps you need to take to make all this happen. You won’t have to guess and experiment anymore.

As you make these changes to your website, marketing and selling tools, products, and services, customers will respond positively. They will buy more. And, they will tell others how great you are, which will increase your sales even more.

Kristin Zhivago is a revenue coach who helps CEOs and entrepreneurs sell more by understanding what their customers want to buy and how they want to buy it. She blogs at http://www.RevenueJournal.com.

Twitter, YouTube videos, text messaging…there’s no question attention spans are short. Everyone is busy, asked constantly to “do more with less,” including most critically their time. To connect with buyers in this environment, your business website needs to provide them with the information they need—quickly and concisely.

By the time a buyer reaches your site, he or she has likely done the basic research. The problem is defined, the solution set narrowed, and now it’s time to choose between competing vendors. In order to make the short list, and ideally to win the business, your site needs to quickly answer five critical questions.

1. Who are you? Unless your brand is a household name, at least within your industry, this is a critical element. Don’t waste your “About” page company history and trivia—make it “sell” your company. Write about awards, media/analyst recognition, number/importance of customers, length of time in business, the experience of your founders, funding, growth and financial performance, and/or any other information that conveys the message: we are the “safe” choice to buy from in this industry.

2. What do you sell? While that is obvious to you, it isn’t to prospects unfamiliar with your company. Use keyword research tools to make sure you are using terms your prospective buyers use, and make it clear and concise. Do you sell a point solution or something that’s part of a broader product suite? Products only or also associated services? For example, suppose you sell web content management software. That could mean a free or low-cost content management system, enterprise content management software, or a web marketing system that includes CRM and email capabilities as well as a CMS.

3. Who do you sell to? No company, especially a small business, can be everything to everyone. Make it clear who your target customers are; this will help weed out prospects who aren’t really qualified and enable you to tightly focus your web copy on your best potential buyers. Do you sell to consumers or to other businesses? To what specific demographic? To big companies or small? In a particular industry or set of industry segments? Make it clear to your site visitors if they are “in the right place.”

4. Why are you the best choice? This is where you differentiate yourself from the pack. Be as direct and factual as possible about your differentiators: service, price, features, capabilities, technology, experience, focus, expertise, acknowledgments, TCO, ROI…tell your prospects what makes your product or service uniquely suited to their needs.

5. How do I buy from you? If a qualified buyer has landed on your site and you’ve done a good job answering questions 1-4 above, this is the critical final question. What do you want the person to do next? Can they buy directly from your site or is it a more complex, high-value purchase that requires a sales cycle? If the former, give them a clear and simple path to the purchase. If the latter, you may need to provide more than one option—but don’t offer too many choices, which may overwhelm the prospect. Possibilities include downloading a white paper or report, signing up for a newsletter, contacting you for more information, following you on Twitter or Facebook, signing up for a free trial, viewing an online demo, or registering for a webinar. Different options likely make sense on different pages. Keep it simple and clear. Test different calls to action.

Much of this may seem obvious, but many business websites still either overload visitors with too much content or make key information hard to find. Differentiate your organization from competitors make it an effective sales tool by concisely answering these key questions for your prospective customers.

A few weeks back, I had a chance to get away for a few days “up nort” as Minnesotans say, for some fishing and relaxing with the family. While there, my mother-in-law took us to the Woodtick Theater, a bluegrass music show in the huge metropolis of Akeley (population: 432). The show itself wasn’t really my kind of thing, but then again, I wasn’t the target demographic (see below). But as I thought about it later, this little theater definitely has some marketing and management lessons to teach any business.

You’ve almost certainly never heard of the Woodtick Theater and are unlikely to see it written up in any business book, but consider:

• The theater is in its 20th season.

• It’s always been profitable.

• It has raving fans and an extraordinary level of repeat business.

• The employees love working there; many have been with the theater for a decade or more.

That’s an impressive set of performance metrics for any business. So how do they do it? Here are five keys to the theater’s success than any business can apply.

Focus on your target market.

Looking around the theater, I felt…young. While there were a few 20- and 30-somethings, and even some teens, in the crowd, the vast majority had hair that was grayer or less present than mine. The target audience for the show is definitely the post-retirement, AARP, RV-driving, early dinner crowd. Other than a Keith Urban song from the late 90’s, the newest song in the troupe’s repertoire was the Beatle’s Penny Lane. And it was these folks who were clapping most enthusiastically, singing along with many of the songs.

The point is—no business can be all things to all people. Particularly for small businesses, focus is critical. Identify your target market, as precisely as possible, and focus on producing messages that appeal to them and products and services that delight them.You’ll likely pick up some “bonus” business from outside your defined target market, which is great, but don’t let that dilute your focus on your core market.

Do the simple things well.

As noted above, the Woodtick Theater plays bluegrass music. As guitar players know, one can play nearly any bluegrass tune with just four chords: G, C, D and E minor. That’s not so say the band members weren’t talented—they were. They may have done just fine playing something from Lady Gaga or Nickelback, or Tchaikovsky for that matter. The point, rather, is that their audience likes the simple songs, ones they know and can sing along with, played well.

Likewise, your customers don’t expect you to be able to solve every problem under the sun, but to be competent (or better) at getting the basics right. Set realistic expectations, then strive to meet or exceed them. As blatantly obvious as that may sound, it’s surprising how many enterprises fail at the basics, like making it easy to contact customer service or returning sales calls promptly.

Make it easy to recommend your business.

The Woodtick Theater hands every guest a “keepsake” printed program; it not only talks about the show, but includes a few corny jokes, the history of Akeley, and most importantly: a discount coupon for the show. This encourages patrons to either come back for another show, or more frequently, recommend the show and pass along the program and discount.

How can your business make it easy for customers to recommend you? That depends on the type of business you’ve got, but a few tactics include producing an email newsletter that’s worthy of forwarding, including social sharing buttons on your blog and website, being active in social media, having a presence on review sites like Yelp (if applicable), or even developing a formal referral program with discounts or other incentives.

Constantly gather, and incorporate, customer feedback.

It’s easy to ask customers “how are we doing?” But the fact is, unless the customer is extremely happy (or unhappy), their answer is likely to be along the lines of “just fine.” Not terribly helpful.

The manager of the Woodtick Theater told me that he constantly watches how the audience responds to their act. “We change our songs frequently in order to keep the show fresh, so we watch how the audience responds. If they are smiling and singing along, we’ll keep that song in the act. If they don’t seem to really love it, we’ll throw that song out and try something different.”

Most businesses can’t collect feedback or witness customer behavior that easily, so they need to employ other methods to monitor and observe customers in action. The best companies find ways to understand how customers are using their products in the real world and utilize that information to constantly improve their products, add new features (or drop features that aren’t needed or valued) and produce new innovations. For example, LEGO Group is known for involving its most passionate customers intimately in its new product development process.

Make customer satisfaction everyone’s job.

Everyone we encountered at the Woodtick Theater—not just the performers, but the emcee, the lady at the ticket booth, the young guy who sold us our popcorn–was pleasant and smiling. All seemed to enjoy being there and wanted the audience to enjoy the visit as well.

Employees want several things from their jobs: an income, benefits, a comfortable work environment, a supportive boss. But they also want to feel that their efforts make a difference. Regardless of whether or not an employee is customer-facing (and through social media, that definition has expanded), every employee should understand how well the organization is performing on customer satisfaction metrics, how that satisfaction is measured, and how their individual efforts contribute.

That may be obvious for sales or customer service personnel, but what about the data entry person in accounting, the guys on the loading dock, or the janitor–how do their efforts impact customer happiness? Well, customers may not rave about accurate billing or consistently getting their orders right, but they will certainly notice if those tasks aren’t done correctly. And if customers visit your office, fairly or not, how neat and clean it is will affect their perceptions of your company.

If you ever find yourself in northern Minnesota and the prospect of hearing a couple of retired music teachers perform a song like “Ghost Chickens in the Sky” (seriously, that was on the playlist) appeals to you, you may want to check out the Woodtick Theater. But regardless, any organization can benefit from the business practices that the theater exemplifies.